Friday, April 15, 2011

Note to commenter lmk: Of course you may copy the picture of Vivian's hospital bed to use in your search for a bed for your daughter! I hope it helps. Keep me posted on what you find. That bed was a godsend for us when Vivian was in the hospital.

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Vivian loved drinking an Oreo smoothie out of a pineapple cup (which she called a "porcupine")

Dots and her friend Maddie also liked Oreo smoothies in porcupines!

Vivian really enjoyed the fish in the lagoons around the hotel property

We would snag a few extra pieces of bread at breakfast each morning and feed them to the fish. Vivian was really good at tearing the bread into really small pieces to make it last longer

Dots and Maddie at afternoon Happy Hour

Vivian liked Happy Hour too

What's better than a fruity drink and some broccoli dipped in ketchup? Ha!

My friends Bettina and Michelle with me at Happy Hour

We abandoned our dinner plans when Vivian put on her Rudolph pajamas and climbed into bed when we went back to our room to watch the sunset

Robert, Dots and me at sunset

The next morning Vivian checked out the beach and ocean with her daddyman

I thought this little "snowman" on the beach was funny!

Though it took a little convincing to get Vivian into the pool, she had fun on the water slides

Bettina and me on the beach

Vivian loved washing her feet off at this shower. I bought this Aqua Jogger swim belt for Vivian before we left for Hawaii. It worked out really well for keeping her afloat in the water (She still required constant supervision, of course!)

Dots and her friends caught some rays

Robert relaxed by the pool with his book

And Vivian hung out in her stroller in her clothes (she wanted NO part of her swimsuit after she got out of the pool - I had to whisk her into a dressing room quickly before she disrobed in public!)

I have a request...a huge request actually. We are looking for a bed for our seven year old autistic daughter and I recalled the bed Vivian used in ICU... the one with the sides. I'm certain it will cost us an arm and a leg...but, a night's sleep would be worth it. May I have permission to save a photo of the bed from your blog so that we might use it when speaking with vendors in our hunt?

Pictured above, starting in upper left and moving clockwise:

Married for 27 years to Robert, three kids: Will (23), Vivian (20) and Dots (17) ~~~~
Majored in mathematics at SMU, taught elementary school for six years before Will was born, currently tutoring math ~~~~
Things I enjoy: playing duplicate bridge, working NY Times crossword puzzles, reading good books, entertaining, visiting with friends, planning trips, traveling, playing board games, spending time with family, cooking, keeping up with old friends ~~~ happy to correspond with other parents about raising a child with special needs

Note about Pictures

I unintentionally contaminated all of the pictures on my blog when I changed my privacy settings on Flickr. I am working backwards to correct them all, but it is quite a tedious procedure! If you encounter a post with error messages from Flickr where the pictures should be, then I haven't gotten to that post yet. Please let me know and I will update it immediately. Thanks for your patience!